Products will be available for sale soon so check back on their shop or on their blog to find out when they will be officially released.

I love the document-sized pouches and the Write-On-Velopes.I can’t wait until they are available for purchase.

I hope the Social Preparedness Kit product line is successful for Egg Press because I get lots of questions about where to buy good and interesting stationery sets beyond notecards so maybe SPK will expand to letter sets soon!

Back in May, I backed the Click Tape project on Kickstarter. I pledged to receive a three-pack of tape dispensers in three colors: lime, teal and navy blue. I, of course wanted to be sure I got my “signature color” lime and I planned to give at least one Click Tape dispenser as a gift.

Each dispenser came in a simple box with one roll of cello tape. My boxes took a bit of abuse by the postal service so I didn’t photograph them but I admire the effort to package the tape dispenser and tape roll and there is a die cut hole in the side of each box placed to reveal the color of the dispenser without having to label the box in any way.

They finally arrived this past week and the Click Tape dispensers are exactly as they were described in the Kickstarter campaign. They are a smooth, matte molded plastic shape (hollow on the underside) with a round disk to hold a standard roll of cello tape.

The teeth are placed so that the tape tears easily but the teeth are not extended out over the edge. It makes it possible to carry this with you in a bag without impaling yourself. Very clever indeed.

The one thing I discovered when I had these in my hands is that the standard cello tape width (0.75″ wide) is wider than most of the washy tapes I own which are only 0.5″ wide. I was so hoping that the Click Tape dispensers would make great washi tape dispensers since I have about 100 rolls. I did find a couple rolls of washi tape that were 0.75″ wide and they fit into the dispenser just fine.

Is it too much to hope that Click Tape will expand their offering to include a 0.5″ sized dispenser? I’d buy a dozen of those too!

Hopefully, there will be an online store soon for folks who didn’t get in on the Kickstarter campaign.

My dear friend picked up one of the original Midori Mini Cleaners on her last trip to Japan and I’ve been dying to have one ever since. So much so, that I emailed Jet Pens and begged for them to restock these. Then, last week, I got a tweet to let me know that the Midori Mini Cleaners II were back in stock.

Mine is in the mail and I will be picking up little gritty bits of eraser dust with glee from the moment it arrives.

The Cube is absolutely stunning to look at. It really is perfectly machined and the Delrin inserts fit cleanly giving a finished, professional look to the stand that honestly cannot be rivaled. There are rubber feet on the bottom that makes it look like its floating while keeping it from sliding around when adding or removing pens from the Cube.

I filled it with an assortment of aluminum, chrome and classic pens found scattered across my desk. From a small Kaweco Liliput to a large Lamy Studio, everything fit beautifully into the Cube.

As for the weight, it truly is a solid block of aluminum weighing in at just under two pounds.

There are still two weeks left to back this project. Funding levels start at $75 for one Cube, $140 for two and $205 for three. There are four vivid, anodized colors as well as silver. How do you ever pick just one?

One of the most awesome things about pencils is the ability to erase what you’ve written or drawn and change it. But which eraser works best?

I decided to put a few different types of erasers head-to-head and see which one works best. Its not the brand of eraser that is the key attribute but rather the type of material used to create the eraser. There are two common types of erasers for everyday use: plastic/vinyl erasers (usually white and almost all are now latex-free) and compound rubber (a bit gritty with a pumice-like material embedded in rubber).

There are also more task-specific erasers like kneaded erasers for artists, “pen-erasers” which have metal pumice to basically sand off a layer of paper and dozens of different shapes and sizes to meet whatever specific purpose you might have. There are lots of type of erasers encased in plastic cases, electric erasers and more. Too many to cover in one post so I’ll stick to the traditional block erasers. Most of which can be purchased at any shop that sells stationery products, from a drugstore to Target, the office big box in your area or your local art supply shop for $2 or less.

I pulled out the most commonly available erasers in my stash including the full range of Pearl erasers from Papermate: the classic Pink Pearl, the Black Pearl and the White Pearl. I also wanted to test my go-to eraser, the Staedtler Mars Plastic against these. I threw in a Koh-i-noor MAGIC (while not the easiest to acquire, its a compound rubber eraser and features fabulously unique looks). The Sanford Magic Rub is a plastic eraser like the Staedtler Mars and, finally, the Mercur i-eraser is a translucent PVC, latex-free eraser which I recently picked up at the local art supply shop to round out the mix.

Lots of pencils come with an eraser cap and these block erasers are often made of similar material. I would compare the look and feel of the Black Pearl to the black eraser cap found on a Palomino Blackwing 602. The Ticondergoga has a pink eraser cap similar to the the Pink Pearl. I find however that the small eraser caps on pencils often just collect lint in my pencil case and, due to their smaller size, dry out quickly. The drier the eraser, the more likely it will be to smear or crumble making a bigger mess than necessary. This is why I tend to prefer block erasers. Since they are larger, they don’t dry out as quickly and if a bit of it does dry out or get too dirty to use, I can trim off the end with a utility knife and have, not only a clean bit of eraser but a crisp sharp corner as well. WIN.

I chose three pencils to test: a Mirado Black Warrior HB, a Palomino Blackwing 602 and a Faber-Castell Grip 2001 2B. I did a scribble for each eraser.

I erased each scribble but I left the eraser dust in place to show how much dust each eraser created. Each eraser left about the same amount of eraser dust.

What surprised me was that different pencils erased differently. The Mercur i-eraser didn’t erase the the Mirado Black Warrior hardly at all but erased the Faber-Castell Grip 2001 almost completely. And, as I would have expected, the Staedtler Mars Plastic erased better across the board than any of the others. The Black Pearl worked pretty well across all three pencils. I would definitely pair the Mercur i-eraser with my Grip 2001s from now on. It erased very cleanly with both the Blackwing 602 and the Grip 2001. So strange.

My expectation, when I tested these, was that one eraser would be a clear winner, and if I had to pick one, then I would choose the Staedtler Mars Plastic. But each of these erasers performed better with some pencils than others.

There’s one other aspect of erasers that I really like. Its the feel of it in my hand. One of the gentlemen on Erasable (I think it was Andy but I can’t remember at the moment) mentioned the Black Pearl as a “worry stone” — an object to hold in your hand while thinking and that is why I love the Black Pearl. I often find that I press it into the palm of my hand like a little river stone while I’m writing. Its strangely soothing. They can also be used to weight down the corner of your notebook or keep your pencil (or pen) from rolling off the table. Even if you’re not inclined to use it to erase pencil marks, erasers are quite handy and a must-have for any well-appointed desk.

In the end, erasers will be a preference for each user but any one of these would be a good place to start.

Okay, its actually the Karas Kustoms/Dudek Cube but c’mon! You want to spell it with a K, don’t you? I do! Spelling issue aside, the rumored collaboration between those machined-tooled maniacs at Karas Kustoms and the “King of the Cube”, Mr. Mike Dudek is finally live on Kickstarter.

The Cube is an aluminum machined Cube, with Delrin inserts to protect your delicate writing instruments while simultaneously looking hardcore. Hurry, the low-low price of $65 per Cube is an early bird special so if you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for this project, back it now.

If you’ve been around the paperazzi blogs recently, you may have seen someone mention the new Kickstarter project for these whimsical sticky page markers that feature cities like Tokyo, complete with Godzilla and New York with King Kong to Mars landscapes and rainbows and clouds. They are well designed and a fun way to brighten those science textbooks or business books you’ve been slogging through.

The project has met its initial goal and is now aiming for the stretch goal — a set of Nessie page markers. If the campaign reaches £50,000, any pledge over £10 will receive a set of Nessie page markers as well.

The Sticky Page Markers project is created by Duncan Shotton who also created the Rainbow Pencils and the Pinnochio-inspired push pins. He’s clever and all his designs have been extremely well-executed and beautifully designed. I really want the Hong Kong set and Nessie! There’s only seven days left so submit your pledge soon!

I really like the idea of having office “toys”. When I was a manager, I would often cover conference room tables with Silly Putty eggs and jars full of Lego. I find it helps people forget they are in a big room feeling awkward. It can give people something to do with their hand besides check their phones for messages and I’d like to believe that doing something tactile can get you thinking more clearly.

So, I was intrigued by the idea of Office Putty. It’s targeted for the office — in a respectable tin in a pleasing blue color and in a good sized wad.

However, I think the $20US/$22CAD opening price point seems a bit steep for the product. Normally, Kickstarter prices are a bit lower than the final retail prices and this seems like a high price, even at retail.

I really want to support this project but it seems a bit too expensive for what it is. Is it just me? Is $20 for a big tin of putty resonable? Talk me into it.

The case is a soft, warm brown leather. Its quite flexible and feels nice in my hand. The case seems to be designed to hold two pens without clips. I put my Art Sport which does not have a clip and my Skyline Mint which has a clip and it was a snug fit. I think I could squeeze two pens with clips into the case but it would likely stretch the leather or damage it over the long term.

You can see its a bit of a tight squeeze with one clip in the case.

If I insert one pen upside down the two pens fit better, even with one clip attached, so I think this will be my solution for the time being. I love having a clip on some of my Kaweco Sports and not on others so this will have to work.

Since the leather is soft and just a cut slit to access the pens (the stitching is only around the edges), the slit opening might tear or pull. I’m curious to see how the leather looks after I use it for a few weeks. If the color will change and if there is any wear to the slit opening.

I have enough Kaweco Sport pens that I might get the Kaweco Classic Leather 2-Pen Pouch just to compare them and I love the little gold Kaweco medallion included with the black molded leather case.

DISCLAIMER: This item was sent to me free of charge by Jet Pens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The folks over at Word. Notebooks have launched a Kickstarter project for a metal desktop pen/notebook base called The Writer’s Block. It is a machined piece to hold your favorite pen or pencil and either two Word. notebooks (or your notebook brand of choice) or your smartphone. The bases are available in brass, black steel or stainless steel.

The overall footprint of the Writer’s Block is 1.5″Wx2″Dx1″H so it will not overwhelm your desk with clutter. Its simple and elegant enough, I could see this as a great way to store pocketbooks, phone and my daily carry pen on the console table by the front door.

Early birds can get a Writer’s Block for $35 if you hurry. After the Kickstarter campaign, prices will go up significantly ($55-84 for the various materials) so if this sort of desk organizer appeals to you, I recommend buying in now.

Three modular wooden pieces form the Kesito Desktop Organizer. Arrange the pieces as shown or line them up to create a parallelogram. Slotted piece can hold a cell phone, notecards or business cards. Open piece is a catchall and the last piece holds pens and pencils. €31

I see a lot of pen projects on Kickstarter so when I heard about the ClickTape tape dispenser, I was pretty stoked. Its time for folks to start innovating other office supply stndards. And the CLickTape is a great idea with a cool design. Modern but classic.

The cost of entry is minimal: just €10 for a blue version and it include worldwide shipping (I just shipped a 2 oz package to the UK and it cost me over $7 so you’re basically paying for postage at this point). To get the coveted green version, I’ll have to jump up to the Triple Pack and get the turquoise and blue one as well for €25.

There’s only a few days left in the Kickstarter campaign and the project is shy about €1000 of reaching the goal. I’d really like this project to get funded (for my own selfish need to have a green one) so please consider this project.

Every desk needs a little something-something to make it special. Have you considered the coffee cup or mug you use? Is it something beautiful and appealing to you? What about protecting your work surface with a coaster instead of using an index card or scrap of paper?

Lynda sent an email asking where she might find the Tea Cup Caddy featured on the blog back in January 2012.

I tried to email Lynda back directly but the email address must have been mistyped so I’m posting the reply here.

The tea cup caddy was sold through Black + Blum and is listed in their Design Archive so, as far as I can tell, the item is no longer available. For other interesting pen cups, you might check on Modcloth or at Anthropologie.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the tools I use everyday, my absolute must-haves. While I love having an assortment of gel pens, fountain pens and a bevvy of different notebooks, I realized that there are a few tools I use everyday, without fail. I also have some tools very specific to my job that might not be of interest to readers but I thought I’d share the everyday go-to tools, in no particular order.

I love vintage staplers. They are good looking and often still work after all these years. Some of my favorite vintage staplers take the difficult-to-find TOT staples. Well, I took a chance and got a packet of Max No. 10 staples in green (of course) and lo and behold they fit and work perfectly in TOT staplers. They are also available in red and blue. All colors are available for $3.30 per box. If colored staples are not to your taste, plain silver No. 10 staples can be purchased in a box of 1000 from Jet Pens for $1.50.

While surfing around ModCloth looking for stationery, I found some other goodies for the office and for the office supply geek.

First, there is the cookie-inspired USB cup warmer. I’ve been grumbling about my coffee or tea cooling off and I have one open USB port left on my office computer. Solution? At $14.99, it just might be.

In the middle image is the vintage-inspired, ceramic dachshund paper organizer. Display your incoming post, letters and photos in the coils. It’s hot dog cool for your desk. Just $12.99.

And what paper nerd wouldn’t want to curl up under a sheet of notebook paper with the Free Verse Reveries duvet cover? Dream sweet pen and ink dreams. $89.99

And the Pencil Me In shoes are back in stock. It’s the perfect shoe for the teacher, librarian or office supply geek in your life. $109.99. If you’re feeling generous, I wear a 6.5.

While I could not get Flickr to upload my travel photos, at least it saved my goodies, so I shall share those with you today. I did not buy a lot of goodies knowing so many things could be purchased later via Jet Pens and other vendors’ online shops so I limited myself to must-haves and small items that would fit in my carry-on bag.

If you put red-and-blue airmail stripes on anything, I’m likely to buy it. Maybe that’s why I love red/blue pencils so much? The pencil pictured above came from the epic Patrick & Co. stationery shop for a mere $0.39. Patrick’s is a classic stationery shop that’s been in business for over 100 years with an endless array of legal pads in every color imaginable, pens and pencils in jars to be purchased individually and so much more. There are two locations in downtown San Francisco, both near Union Square and should not be missed. The Dennison Airmail seals and the gummed labels came from Saturday Morning Vintage who had a stellar booth at the vendor market at Ex Postal Facto. The G. Lalo Verge de France stationery pad came from Patrick & Co. while the Air Mail stationery and envelopes came from Maido.

I purchased a few Pilot Hi-Tec C refills and a Hi-Uni HB pencil in the Maido shop in the Westfield Mall in Union Square. I also visited the Maido shop in Japantown and picked up a few more goodies. The postcard set tied with twine came from the 826 Collective Pirate Shop in the Mission. What fun! The Ohto Dude pen was compliments on Jet Pens along with a couple Morning Glory Mach 3 pens.

And of course, no trip would be complete without a little green. I got a word cards deck, some green gel pens, a “beans” cutter and itty bitty green staples from Maido. There will be more details about these purchases in the near future but I wanted to give a little taste of the stationery bounty available in San Francisco, should you find yourself there.

Doane Paper has once again created a limited edition team-up product, this time with Winter Session out of Denver. The team created a heavyweight waxed canvas pouch to fit into a 3-ring binder to go along with Doane’s 3-ring loose leaf paper. The pouch measures 11×7.5 and include an industrial zipper, heavy-duty grommets and an unstated leather tag. It’s simple, modern and enviably covetable. $45

Each beautifully laser-etched stationery box ($48) from Little Low on Etsy comes filled with a Marvy Le Pen (assorted colors), a wood-barreled calligraphy pen with nib, a Zebra #2 mechanical pencil and a roll of washi tape. The lid slides and inside is two compartments — one for writing tools and one for smaller bits. Be sure to check out their other products too. Hint, hint there are some great Valentine’s ideas in here.

Need to keep the snack-stealing, pencil-nabbing, cube-dwelling troglodytes from running away with your beloved office supplies or snacks? The KnockKnock MINE! sticky notes might do the trick. They are standard 3×3″ squares with removable adhesive and a place to clearly establish your ownership. $3.99 for a 100-sheet pad. Just in time for Valentine’s Day.

I have a CRAP sticky notes pad and, while they are not the stickiest sticky notes in the world, I always get comments on how fun they are.

A dear friend sent me this beautiful bird letter opener for Christmas. Its made of a hard plastic with a matte finish. It’s sculpted shape feels good in the hand and the tail is curved to tuck under the edge of an envelope. It can stand on its own like a little bird perched on my desk.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve put it through its paces the last couple weeks. It works pretty well but is not as sharp as a blade sharpener like my favorite old school letter openers. It has decided to take up residence on my work desk where it can be called upon to open the occasional letter versus the abuse my home openers endure.